Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

ARTICLE 8. MEASURES BEING TAKEN BY THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN TO ENSURE THE PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
447. Under Article 8 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Uzbekistan is taking every appropriate measure to ensure that women take part, on an equal footing with men and without any discrimination, in the representation of their government at the international level and in the work of international organizations.

448. Women of Uzbekistan represent their government at the international level as follows:

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  as individuals holding senior State posts;
  
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  as deputies or senators and heads of structural subdivisions of the parliament, of the government, of ministries, of departments, etc.;
  
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  as mid-management representatives in legislative, executive and judicial bodies who are delegated by higher bodies or senior officials to participate in the activities of international organizations and in various international events;
  
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  as employees of national human rights institutions functioning in Uzbekistan;
  
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  as staff members of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of External Economic Relations, Trade and Investment and other departments dealing with external political or economic relations;
  
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  as leaders of women’s non-governmental organizations, etc.
  

449. Today, women who work in a department dealing with the external political relations of the republic and who hold various diplomatic posts in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs number 26, and one is a deputy minister of foreign affairs. Sixty-six women work hold administrative positions.

450. Women work in Republic of Uzbekistan diplomatic missions abroad in various diplomatic or administrative posts. Specifically, the post of Permanent Representative of the Republic of Uzbekistan to UNESCO is held by a woman.

451. Virtually all women working in State service are sent annually to participate in international seminars, conferences and other events. Moreover, women working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are regularly sent to states abroad for professional development, exchange of experience, and improvement of language skills.

452. It has become routine for women to hold posts such as Speaker of the Legislative Chamber, Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsman), chairperson of the Women’s Committee of Uzbekistan, chairperson of the Federation of Trade Unions, or heads of departments, large enterprises, institutions or organizations working in international forums arranged by the United Nations, the OSCE, the European Union, the European Parliament, and other international organizations.

453. Accordingly, from 28 February through 1 March 2006, S. Gerasimova, a member of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis, served as a member of the Uzbekistan delegation that took part in the work of the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in considering the third, fourth, and fifth national reports of Uzbekistan on the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; during the period of 15-22 May 2006, T. Narbayeva, lead specialist of the Information Analysis Department for Education, Health Care and Social Protection of the Cabinet of Minister took part in the work of the forty-second session of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. Uzbekistan women who worked for the National Centre for Human Rights or were representatives of women’s non-governmental non-commercial organizations participated in the annual OSCE Human Dimension Meeting 2-13 October 2006 (Warsaw), the 29-31 March 2007 Supplementary OSCE Human Dimension Meeting (Vienna) on the topic “Freedom of Assembly, Association, and Expression: Fostering Full and Equal Participation in Pluralist Societies”, the 16-18 May 2007 Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights seminar (Warsaw) on the topic “Effective Participation and Representation in Democratic Societies”, and the 7-13 November 2007 meeting of the United Nations Committee against Torture (Geneva) to consider the Third Periodic Report of the Republic of Uzbekistan on the Implementation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
ARTICLE 9. GRANTING WOMEN RIGHTS EQUAL TO THOSE OF MEN IN TERMS OF ACQUIRING, CHANGING OR RETAINING THEIR CITIZENSHIP
454. The State has developed measures granting women rights equal to those of men in terms of acquiring, changing or keeping their citizenship. Women’s rights to citizenship are safeguarded by the 2 July 1992 law on citizenship, Article 1 of which says this: “In the Republic of Uzbekistan, every person shall have a right to citizenship. No one may be deprived of citizenship or the right to change one’s citizenship. The Republic of Uzbekistan shall protect the rights, freedoms and interests of its citizens within the Republic of Uzbekistan and outside it”.

455. Article 2 of the law says this: “Citizenship in the Republic of Uzbekistan shall be equal for all, regardless of the bases on which it was acquired”. All persons, regardless of sex, who permanently reside in the Republic of Uzbekistan and who express a wish to become citizens of the Republic of Uzbekistan shall be entitled to be citizens of the Republic of Uzbekistan”.

456. Article 6 of that law establishes the following: “Neither the marriage of a national of the Republic of Uzbekistan to a person of foreign nationality or to a stateless person nor the dissolution of such a marriage shall entail any change in the nationality of the spouse. A change of nationality of one of the spouses shall not entail any change in the nationality of the other spouse”.

457. Article 7 of the law states the following: “Residence of a citizen of the Republic of Uzbekistan abroad shall not involve cancellation of citizenship for the Republic of Uzbekistan”.

458. Under Article 12 of the law, Republic of Uzbekistan citizenship is acquired by both women and men identically:

1. by birth;

2. by naturalization;

3. on grounds stipulated by international treaties of the Republic of Uzbekistan;

4. on other grounds specified by the law on citizenship.

459. Article 19 of the law provides the grounds for termination of Republic of Uzbekistan citizenship, which the same for women and men:

1. renunciation of Republic of Uzbekistan citizenship;

2. loss of Republic of Uzbekistan citizenship, etc.

460. Under articles 22 and 24 of the law on citizenship in the Republic of Uzbekistan, if the citizenship of one’s parents changes, as a result of which both become Republic of Uzbekistan citizens or both renounce Republic of Uzbekistan citizenship, the citizenship of those of their children who have not reached the age of 14 changes accordingly.

461. If only one of the parents of a child is known and the citizenship of that parent changes, the citizenship of the child, if that child has not reached the age of 14, also changes accordingly.

462. If one of the parents of a child becomes a Republic of Uzbekistan citizen, but the other parent remains a foreign citizen, the child may acquire Republic of Uzbekistan citizenship if the parent who acquired Republic of Uzbekistan citizenship petitions for the acquisition.

463. If one of the parents of a child becomes a Republic of Uzbekistan citizen, but the other parent remains a stateless person, the child, if he or she lives in the Republic of Uzbekistan, is a citizen of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

464. If one of the parents of a child becomes a Republic of Uzbekistan citizen, but the other parent remains a stateless person, the child, if he or she lives outside the Republic of Uzbekistan, may acquire Republic of Uzbekistan citizenship if the parent who acquired Republic of Uzbekistan citizenship petitions for the acquisition.

465. If one of the parents of a child renounces Republic of Uzbekistan citizenship, but the other remains a Republic of Uzbekistan citizen, the child retains Republic of Uzbekistan citizenship.

466. At the request of a parent who is renouncing Republic of Uzbekistan citizenship, the child of the parent may also be allowed to renounced Republic of Uzbekistan citizenship.
ARTICLE 10. MEASURES TO ELIMINATE DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN IN THE FIELD OF EDUCATION
467. Article 41 of the Constitution states the following: “Everyone shall have the right to education. The State shall guarantee free secondary education. Schooling shall be under State supervision”. Accordingly, the State is taking every appropriate measure to eliminate discrimination against women by giving them rights equal to those of men, including in the field of education.

468. Article 3 of the law on education defines the basic principles of State policy in education, namely:

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  education is be a priority in the social development sphere of the Republic of Uzbekistan;
  
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  training and education are to be humanistic and democratic;
  
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  education is to be continuous and is to have continuity;
  
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  general mid-level education and specialized, vocational secondary education are to be mandatory.
  

469. Article 4 of the law codified the following provision: “Everyone shall be guaranteed equal rights to receive an education, regardless of sex, language, age, race, social origin, occupation, social status, place of residence, or duration of residence in the Republic of Uzbekistan”.

470. Uzbekistan is implementing the provisions of the law on education rigorously.

471. For purposes of ensuring the effectiveness of the educational system, the Republic of Uzbekistan attaches great significance to the development of educational structures and to providing the public with all forms of education and training as it protects the Constitutional rights of citizens to education.

472. The State system of continuous education in Uzbekistan includes the following:

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  pre-school education of children as young as 3 and as old as 6 or 7;
  
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  mandatory school education: four years of elementary school; nine years of incomplete mid-level education; and two years of complete secondary education, which will be completely eliminated by 2010;
  
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  three years of vocational or academic education;
  
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  higher education, consisting of two degrees—baccalaureate and master’s;
  
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  post-college education—post-graduate studies and doctoral studies.
  
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  various forms of re-training and professional development after completion of one's education in the overall system.
  

473. The country’s literacy rate remains among the highest in the world, at 99.34 per cent, which includes women’s literacy.

474. A total of 1,021,602 girls are enrolled in elementary school in middle general-education schools of the Republic of Uzbekistan, which constitutes 49.2 per cent of the total number of students in elementary school.

475. In the middle component of the schools, i.e., grades 5-9, a total of 1,486,086 girls are enrolled, which constitutes 49.1 per cent of the total enrolment for grades 5-9.

476. Of the 609,035 ninth-graders completing their general education in the 2007/2008 school year, 301,200, or 49.5 per cent, are girls.

477. The Ministry of Education is systematically monitoring school attendance. Monitoring performed in January 2008 identified only 580 students who regularly missed classes without a legitimate excuse; 191 of them were girls. The teaching staffs of schools, together with Makhallya committees, are working with them and their parents to get the students back into school.

478. At present, as with boys, every girl who reaches school age must attend school and receive nine years of education. After completion of school, young women are offered a wide selection of specialties and professions that they can receive in higher education, specialized secondary, and vocational-technical schools

479. Non-discriminatory approaches have been developed for educating girls in the system of education and vocational education.

480. A network consisting of institutions of a new type for specialized secondary education and vocational training began operation in the 1997/1998 school year. At present, Uzbekistan has 846 specialized secondary and vocational education institutions with a capacity for 527,800 students and an enrolment of 570,300, some 50 per cent of whom are girls.²⁷

481. Also in place is a broad network of organizations and institutions for professional development, training and re-training of specialists, which provides educational assistance to women throughout their lives.

482. Uzbekistan’s entire educational system encompasses more than 6.5 million students, 48.4 per cent of whom are women, some of whom are being sent abroad for training and professional development..

483. Women make up 38 per cent of all specialists and research associates. Among them are eight women academicians, 310 doctors of science (16 per cent) and 3,025 candidates of science (33%). Women account for a well-defined share of heads of scientific and educational institutions: accordingly, 20 women are vice rectors of higher learning institutions, two are rectors, 34 are faculty deans, and 390 chair departments.

484. The choice of training specialties in institutions of learning differs markedly between women and men. As a rule, women attending higher education institutions and specialized secondary learning institutions to receive a specialty opt for sectors such as education and health, whereas men tend to choose industry, agriculture, construction and education.

485. In Uzbekistan, a determined effort is under way to support and develop the talents of gifted young adults and adolescent boys and girls. Suffice it to say that Uzbekistan has met the Millennium Development Goals in terms of elementary and secondary education for boys and girls..

486. The Centre for Training Women in Telecommunications and Information Technology has been opened at the Tashkent University of Information Technology. The Centre’s work consists in training women in telecommunications, IT, e-government, e-commerce and other such fields, which will enable them to find good jobs and improve their lives. Its special target audience includes women who are finishing college and are seeking specialized training. More than 500 women a year attend the Centre, and the number of trainees will gradually increase.

487. Regional branches of the Centre are slated to be opened, which means that the Centre will be training not only women of Uzbekistan, but also women from other parts of Central Asia.
ARTICLE 11. MEASURES TO ELIMINATE DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN IN EMPLOYMENT
488. Article 37 of the Constitution says this: “Everyone shall have the right to work, to choose one’s occupation freely, to enjoy fair conditions of work, and to be protected from unemployment in the manner prescribed by law”.

489. The Labour Code, which is based on the Constitution, guarantees women, on an equal footing with men, the right to work and to freely choose their occupations; the right to social protection upon retirement; and unemployment, sickness, and disability benefits.

490. Under Article 58 of the Labour Code, “the State guarantees every person equal opportunity in the acquisition of an occupation and a job, in conditions of work and employment, in being paid for one’s labour, and in job advancement”.

491. Since the Republic of Uzbekistan gained its independence, it has done a great deal of diligent work to strengthen the legal status of women and to ensure equal rights for women and men in all spheres of the life of the society, including the socio-economic sphere. An entire complex of legal acts defining the opportunities of women in the socio-economic sphere and, specifically, in labour relations has been developed and adopted. Those acts contain both general rules and standards for ensuring the labour rights of all citizens and special rules and procedures pertaining to the labour rights of women. .

492. Republic of Uzbekistan labour law contains guarantees for safeguarding women’s reproductive function. An array of measures have been established to protect motherhood and fatherhood. They include protection of pregnant women against unemployment, plus the transfer to a new job if a situation arises in which keeping their regular job is not possible; labour protection for pregnant women and for mothers who have breast-feeding children; and breaks for breast feeding. Paid leave to care for a sick child may be used by any family member.

493. In our view, preserving the societal value of motherhood (childbirth) in labour law is not discrimination, since it is aimed at equalizing the opportunities of working men and women with family responsibilities in the receipt of social assistance from the State. That is also the position of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and related ILO conventions.

494. In Uzbekistan, special value is given to women’s employment. Created in the republic every year are thousands of new jobs, 40 per cent of which are held by women; in 2006 alone, upwards of 147,000 new jobs were created for women, for which more than 40 billion sum were allocated.

495. Recent years have seen a considerable intensification of the State’s efforts to ensure employment, including for women, by means of creating the conditions for further expansion of home-based work, small business, and microfirms.

496. The 18 May 2007 presidential decree on additional measures to provide material and moral support to young families, which calls for enhancing the social status of the young family and for giving it the necessary assistance at the beginning of their working lives, is important to ensuring employment and to raising the public’s level of income, as is the 5 January 2006 presidential decree on measures to stimulate expansion of cooperation between large industrial enterprises and the provision of services based on the development of home-based work.

497. Those acts provide for the creation of conditions that encourage the broad enlistment of the public in home-based work by means of the following:

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  for enterprises that use the labour of home-based workers, the establishment of tax concessions on property (equipment, tools, and inventory) passed on for free use by the home-based worker so that they can make the payment due from the labour remuneration fund, in the amount of the money paid to the home-based workers under labour contracts;
  
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  consolidation of a system of measures aimed at providing social protection and labour protection for home-based workers.
  
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  according to the data of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, as a result of the development of home-based work, around 60,000 jobs were created in 2006, including 30,000 that used women’s labour. Nearly half of all the jobs were created in rural areas.
  

498. As of the beginning of 2007, a large increase in employment had been achieved, particularly for women, as a result of the development of new forms of home-based work. In the first quarter of 2007 alone, some 8,800 jobs were created on the basis of contracts with large industrial enterprises, and 13,100 jobs were created in family businesses. Home-based work gave women an immense opportunity to boost their economic potential, combine work in the home with work on the job, and earn money without being away from the family.

499. To improve the situation in employment, the Government approved territorial programmes for the period of 2005-2007 for providing women employment. The programmes involve the creation in each region of the requisite number of new jobs, mainly through the development of small business, the service sector, and home-based work. Concessional loans are granted to small businesses that employ women primarily or are headed by women. Banks made 90.087 billion sum available to women entrepreneurs, which is 214 percent more than in 2006. Accordingly, the joint-stock commercial bank Mikrokreditbank provided women who wished to engage in business more than 11.076 billion sum, which is 2.7-fold more than in 2006.

500. A sociological survey conducted among women by the Centre for the Study of Public Opinion showed that the level of satisfaction that women derived from the work they did on a day-to-day basis rose to 83.3 per cent in 2008 from 68.4 per cent in 2005 and 69.9 percent in 2006. At the same time, women’s satisfaction with the amount of money they earn at their primary place of work is growing: it rose to 76.5 percent in 2008 from 36.4 per cent in 2005. The conditions for involving women in business improved to 67.7 per cent in 2008 from 49.8 percent in 2005.

501. For purposes of implementing para. 28 of the Concluding Recommendations of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in terms of seeking new possibilities for employing women, the Republic of Uzbekistan in 2007 performed a gender analysis of the Republic of Uzbekistan Labour Code.

502. In examining labour law in terms of its gender dimension, the Republic of Uzbekistan set out to determine the extent to which the norms of the Labour Code conform to the principle of gender equality and the extent to which the limitations incorporated by lawmakers are commensurate with women’s interests and the protection of their rights.

503. The analysis of the Labour Code through the lens of gender confirms that the law contains articles that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex when hiring or firing within the limits of the general norms of labour law. Republic of Uzbekistan labour law codifies guarantees for safeguarding women’s reproductive function. An array of measures have been established to protect parental rights, as well as motherhood and fatherhood. They include protection of pregnant women against unemployment, plus transfer to a new job if a situation arises in which keeping their regular job is not possible; labour protection for pregnant women and for mothers who have breast-feeding children; breaks for breast feeding; and the right of any family member to take paid leave to care for a sick child.

504. At the same time, the formation of market mechanisms for regulating labour in a new fashion are aggravating problems involving the participation of women in social production, thereby strengthening discriminatory trends. It is precisely that category of the population that is most vulnerable at the moment in the sphere of employment and labour relations, is least competitive on the labour market, and has a number of benefits established by law that place women on unequal footing with men and create the precedent of the emergence of unequal opportunities.

505. The gender analysis of the Labour Code²⁸ conducted by government entities enables the following conclusions:

1. During the transition to market relations, it would be best in the Republic of Uzbekistan to preserve the regulatory role of the State in the social and labour spheres as a guarantee of women’s rights.

2. To protect women’s rights, it is necessary to incorporate in the Labour Code norms that define the concept of “discrimination against women”, the basis for which could be the definition given in Article 1 of the 1979 United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women”.

3. The female work force is less attractive to employers because women combine two functions—professional and maternal. In light of that, it would be best to afford women the right to decide for themselves whether to exercise the rights provided by the Labour Code or not. Moreover, the existing approaches to the system of social rights and guarantees for women should be changed. Specifically, we should move from the concept of “motherhood” to the concept of “parenthood”, or “working men and women with family responsibilities”. Under the requirements of the ILO Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention No. 156, a sane, civilized market economy requires that the focus of regulation in terms of working hours and rules for dismissal be not only the woman, but also men who have children under the age of 3 (in terms of night work) or children under the age of 14 (overtime, travel assignments, part-time workday), single fathers (in terms of dismissal or leave without pay if he has two children) and, inter alia, men during their wives’ pregnancy and childbirth. Those innovations make it possible to make not only motherhood, but also parenthood the focus of labour relations and to enhance the child-rearing responsibility of both parents.

4. It is necessary to develop a system for regulating job advancement for women through the introduction of an effective temporary quota mechanism for management-level personnel, the expansion of the training of women leaders for business and management and, inter alia, the use of a system of periodic open competitions for posts that require the participation of women and that, all things being equal, give preference to hiring them.

5. The Labour Code, while it prohibits discrimination based on various criteria in the sphere of labour and affords victims of discrimination the right to turn to the courts to restore the violated rights and recover damages and receive compensation for moral injury, does not establish with whom the obligation rests to prove the presence or absence of discrimination and the intent to commit it. That makes it necessary to introduce into the Labour Code the obligation of the employer to prove the absence of intent to discriminate against a worker, including cases of discrimination on the basis of sex.

506. The results of gender analysis of the Labour Code were taken into account in the National Plan of Action for the Implementation of the Recommendations of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on the Basis of the Consideration of the Combined Second and Third Periodic Reports of Uzbekistan. That document calls for the development of a Framework for a National Strategy to Ensure Gender Equality in the Republic of Uzbekistan in the spheres of legislation, economics, social protection and employment and civil society; the development of a programme of professional development for women managers; and, inter alia, the conduct of social research on the status of women on the informal labour market.